Fire can cause severe damage to building structures. This fact has increased the importance of the fire resistance of concrete. The consideration of the fire resistance of concrete requires the complete knowledge of the behaviour of each concrete component under elevated temperatures. The resistance of blended cement pastes upon heating was studied in the present paper. Natural pozzolana, fly ash, ground granulated blast-furnace slag, metakaolin and limestone were used as the main cement constituents. Blended cements were prepared by replacing a part of Portland Cement (PC) with the minerals mentioned above (10% w/w in the case of metakaolin, 20% w/w in the case of the rest materials). The specimens were water-cured for 3 months and then they were thermally treated at 200, 400, 600 800 and 1000?C for 1h. Visual inspection, mass measurements and ultrasonic pulse velocity measurements were carried out after each thermal treatment. It was concluded that the cohesion of the pastes was strongly affected by the kind of the main constituent, added to the Portland cement. The use of pozzolanic materials and especially metakaolin improved the fire resistance of the pastes, while the samples with limestone show the worst behavior.
Behavior of blended cement pastes at elevated temperature